The BBC announced plans on Friday to raise staff retirement age and close its final salary pension scheme to new entrants, prompting fury from labour unions.
The publicly funded broadcaster also aims to increase the contribution rates 21,000 of its employees have to pay for their pensions.
Unions say the proposals will create a "two-tier workforce" and have vowed to fight them. "We will not accept attempts to make staff pay for the BBC's failure to properly fund the scheme," said Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists.
BBC Director General Mark Thompson said changes had to be made for the final salary scheme to remain "secure and affordable". "The BBC pension scheme is currently healthy but it is reaching the end of its surplus and the risks associated with funding a final salary scheme on the scale of ours have affected the affordability of the scheme," he said.
The corporation plans to raise the retirement age to 65 from 60 for all staff aged under 50. The BBC pension fund is one of Britain's largest, with over 6.4 billion pounds of assets, split 60 percent in equities, 30 percent in bonds and 10 percent in property.
The BBC is the latest organisation to close the door on its final salary scheme, as falling investment yields and longer life expectancy put pressure on funding levels.
BBC Group Finance Director Zarin Patel told Reuters that the scheme's surplus had fallen to 13 million pounds last year from 441 million pounds in 2002, and that around half that fall was due to the expectation that its pensioners would live longer.
New staff will be able to join a defined benefit scheme offering a pension based on the average salary they earned during their career. The NUJ said staff in the new scheme would be 30 percent worse off than the final salary scheme members.
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